It's our personal responsibility...

"Great teachers are firmly convinced that they are responsible for student learning and consistently bend their efforts toward doing a better job every day. These teachers see better ways in which to teach their students; they believe that how they talk about the specific topic and the ways in which they lead students to experience it can make each lesson more engaging; and they believe that they are personally responsible for student learning. 

Most of us recall our favorite teachers because they cared deeply that we shared their passion and interest in their subject, they seemed to take extra effort to make sure that we understood, they tolerated and learned from our mistakes, and they celebrated when we attained the success criteria. 

These passionate teachers had the same time, same curriculum, same exam constraints, same physical settings, and the same class sizes as other teachers, but they certainly communicated the excitement of the challenge, and their commitment and caring for learning..." 

(Pg. 35 from Visible Learning for Teacher by John Hattie)

I've heard many positive comments about the book "Visible Learning for Teachers," and now I see why. We have plans to start a book club this summer and I would love to add this book to our "must read" list.

If you were to create a list of the attributes and characteristics of great teachers, what would you include on that list? Or, would it be impossible to create a list of what qualities great teachers exhibit because sometimes great teachers just have the unquantifiable "it" factor...

Maybe it's as simple as... personal responsibility...